Rain Check Buffalo - This is cool

[WNYresident]

Rain Check is a citywide effort to manage water where it falls and protect water quality and quantity.

program that is FREE for city property owners

You Can Help!

By signing up for this program, your property will be assessed to see if disconnecting your downspouts and installing a rain barrel is possible. If this is determined the best action for your property, the Buffalo Sewer Authority will deliver and install a rain barrel on your property — free of charge. You can then use the stormwater that this rain barrel will collect to water your garden or wash your car. Or you can just leave it be and know that it is collecting stormwater that would have normally rushed into our sewer system and overwhelm it.




Contact Us

email raincheck@sa.ci.buffalo.ny.us
call 716-851-4664 x 4254
text "Rain Check" to 877-877

http://raincheckbuffalo.org/

We kicked off Earth Week by announcing a new initiative called ‘Rain Check.’ This program will provide free rain barrels...

Posted by Mayor Byron W. Brown on Monday, April 20, 2015

[grump]

Rain Check is a citywide effort to manage water where it falls and protect water quality and quantity.

program that is FREE for city property owners

You Can Help!

By signing up for this program, your property will be assessed to see if disconnecting your downspouts and installing a rain barrel is possible. If this is determined the best action for your property, the Buffalo Sewer Authority will deliver and install a rain barrel on your property — free of charge. You can then use the stormwater that this rain barrel will collect to water your garden or wash your car. Or you can just leave it be and know that it is collecting stormwater that would have normally rushed into our sewer system and overwhelm it.




Contact Us

email raincheck@sa.ci.buffalo.ny.us
call 716-851-4664 x 4254
text "Rain Check" to 877-877

http://raincheckbuffalo.org/

We kicked off Earth Week by announcing a new initiative called ‘Rain Check.’ This program will provide free rain barrels...

Posted by Mayor Byron W. Brown on Monday, April 20, 2015

Is the city's storm water system routinely overwhelmed? Also, I suppose it is gratifying from an environmental standpoint to know that you're maintaining a breeding place for mosquitoes.

[300miles]

Is the city's storm water system routinely overwhelmed?

Yes. They're spending a lot of money to try and fix it, hence the smaller programs like this to keep water out of the system.

Also, I suppose it is gratifying from an environmental standpoint to know that you're maintaining a breeding place for mosquitoes.

Not if they have a screen on them, which they probably do.

[WNYresident]

That was a very good question. Are the storm sewers really having issues in the first place?

They want to keep out 1.28 billion gallons of water annually from the sewers.


1,280,000,000 gallons of water / 365 days in a year = 3,555,555 million gallons saved a day, right?

I wonder how many gallons of water rain on the City of Buffalo each year.

I wonder how you would figure that out.

Take the square miles of the City of Buffalo and the total rainfall in inches for the year. Wouldn't that give us how many gallons of water that fell?

City 52.5 sq mi

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 52.5 square miles (136 km2), of which 40.6 square miles (105 km2) is land and 11.9 square miles (31 km2) is water. The total area is 22.66% water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo,_New_York


Square Miles to Square Inches

http://www.metric-conversions.org/ar...are-inches.htm

52.5mi²= 210760704000in²

210,760,704,000 square inches. So each 1" of rain equals one cubic inch of water.

Now we need to know how many cubic inches of water are in 1 US gallon of liquid.

There are 231 cubic inches in a US gallon. Hence if you have a volume in cubic inches, for example 3675 cubic inches you can convert it to US gallons by dividing be 231.

http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/QQ/dat...osemarie1.html


1 gallon liquid US = 231 cubic inches.


210,760,704,000 square inches with 1" rainfall / 231 cubic inches (1" of rainfall) = 912,384,000 gallons of water for each 1" of rain, right?



Buffalo, New York 40.5 Inches of rainfall average per year.

http://www.currentresults.com/Weathe...on-by-city.php


So if we take 40.5 inches of rainfall X 912,384,000 gallons of water = 36,951,522,000 billion gallons of water each year

They would like to save 1.28 billion gallons from entering the storm sewers. When you have 36,951,522,000 billion gallons of water flushing through the sewers does 1.28 billion not draining really make a difference in wear and tear?

Rain Check is proud to offer a downspout disconnection program that is FREE for city property owners

They have 1000 water barrels to give away for "free". First off they are not free. Why do they tell this to people in our community? Why not say we'll supply a downspout disconnect paid for by someone else? Where do they think "grants" come from?

1000 barrels sound like a lot until you figure out how many barrels it takes to save 1.28 billion gallons of water.

I'm going to assume they hold 55 gallons of water.

1,280,000,000 saved gallons / 55 gallon barrels = 23,272,727 barrels. Is my math screwed up or is that correct?

It would take 63,760 barrels to be filled each day for 365 days to capture 1,280,000,000 gallons of water.

63,760 barrels could capture 55 gallons each day = 3,506,850 daily gallons of water.

1000 barrels are not going to be enough.

It will take 60+ years until 63,760 barrels are in service.

[Genoobie]

As someone who regularly uses rain barrels, the figure is indeed a pipe dream. Although you can easily fill up at least 3 or 4 during a heavy rain off of 1/4 of an 18 square roof.

[300miles]

But you're over simplifying it by averaging it out over the year and only looking at rainwater. The Buffalo sewer is combined drainage and sewage. The problem is not with the averages so much, as it is with the intense spikes. On a normal rainy day, the system is ok. But when we get a heavier storm, or intense snow thaw, or other combinations that stress the system, it gets overloaded quickly, within minutes, and raw sewage gets dumped into the waterways. But if storm water can be kept out of the system during rain spikes, then it will be less likely to overflow and get dumped into the lake. If some of that spike in water can be kept out of the drainage system even just for a couple hours, it makes a huge difference.

[WNYresident]

I'm not over simplifying it.

1000 barrels can hold 55,000 gallons of water.

1" of rain over the city of Buffalo = 912,384,000 gallons of water

So if every barrel caught every gallon they can hold all they would hold is 55,000 gallons.

[300miles]

And are you saying in your expert opinion that 55,000 gallons in 1 hour won't help the system in any way? Mind you this is combined with other efforts the city is also funding, like installing rain gardens, permeable pavements, and large underground retention pools to hold the water during spikes.

[buffy]

Here's an idea, instead of preventing the water from entering "an overwhelmed system" why not improve the whole system and SELL the water. We could create jobs and a new revenue stream for an increasingly valuable natural resource.

Water is is a terrible thing to waste. There's a market for it out West.

[Genoobie]

Here's an idea, instead of preventing the water from entering "an overwhelmed system" why not improve the whole system and SELL the water. We could create jobs and a new revenue stream for an increasingly valuable natural resource.

Water is is a terrible thing to waste. There's a market for it out West.

Water is still not expensive enough to ship it across country. There are sources out West (Oglala, etc.)
You cannot "improve" this system except through large retention pools and even then, the plant doesn't have near capacity for peak rainfalls. We will probably have to live with, forever, that when the rain spikes, s*** goes into the lake.

[300miles]

I think there are laws that prevent selling our water outside the area.
This is to protect the Great Lakes from being drained for places like California.

[grump]

Here's an idea, instead of preventing the water from entering "an overwhelmed system" why not improve the whole system and SELL the water. We could create jobs and a new revenue stream for an increasingly valuable natural resource.

Water is is a terrible thing to waste. There's a market for it out West.

Call me slow if you'd like but how is the storm water system suddenly so overwhelmed in a city that has seen its population drop 50% in 50 years. This sounds like typical new age crappola to me. My guess...someone somewhere connected to Cuomo, Poloncarz, Erkel, Higgins or all of them is line for some $$$ through this.

[300miles]

Call me slow if you'd like but how is the storm water system suddenly so overwhelmed in a city that has seen its population drop 50% in 50 years.

Who said it was sudden?
It's not just the city population. It also processes waste from the suburbs.
Also the system is probably 80 years old. It's not something that gets better with age.

[gorja]

Originally posted by WNYresident:
There are 231 cubic inches in a US gallon. Hence if you have a volume in cubic inches, for example 3675 cubic inches you can convert it to US gallons by dividing be 231.

Posted by WNYresident:
210,760,704,000 square inches with 1" rainfall / 231 cubic inches (1" of rainfall) = 912,384,000 gallons of water for each 1" of rain, right?

You were dividing square inches by 231 cubic inches not cubic inches by cubic inches.